Caine Woodwind Quintet

CCA Student Work

Dean's Convocation

In 2011-12, the Caine College of the Arts participated in the Strategic National Arts
Alumni Project (SNAAP) in order to obtain baseline data on the lives and careers of
USU’s arts graduates. Since this survey is sent to all arts alumni (not just recent
graduates), the college repeated the survey in 2015-16, and will continue to repeat
every few years thereafter, in order to track changes in student experiences and alumni
perceptions.

Following the first administration of the survey, the college made several changes
in response to information gained through the report, including:

An increased emphasis on academic advising and a plan to expand the work of the advising
center to encompass career advising and internship placement assistance, including
hiring a second full-time advisor for the college.

An increased emphasis on business practices and entrepreneurship skills, beginning
with asking our visiting artists to address how they got started in their careers
as we grapple with how to incorporate this important aspect into curricula.

An increased emphasis on time to completion of degrees by offering more courses in
the major that also fulfill General Education requirements. In 2014, each department
replaced at least 3 credits of General Education courses. (3 cr. in Art and Design,
6 cr. in Music, and 9 cr. in Theatre Arts). The college will continue to pursue such
ideas with the faculty.

Concurrently, the college is working to increase scholarship support so that students
can remain full-time for their undergraduate career, and we are making progress. At
the founding of the college in 2010, approximately 28% of our students received some
form of scholarship support. In 2014, this had risen to about 70%.

While Regional Accreditation is of critical importance to the institution, it is also
a wide-angle view of the institution as a whole. In the arts, specialized accreditation
also plays a major role in helping institutions chart their course for the future
and functions as an indicator that the institution is meeting its obligations to students
who aspire to succeed as artists and citizens.

At the formation of the college in 2010, USU was a member institution of the National
Association of Schools of Music (NASM), an accreditation we retain. Two professional
programs are also accredited. The Music Therapy program is accredited by the American
Music Therapy Association (AMTA); and the Interior Design program, by the Council
for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA).

In 2014, the Department of Art and Design became a member institution of the National
Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), and accreditation by the National
Association of Schools of Theatre (NAST) is a goal toward which the Department of
Theatre Arts is working with an anticipated application date of 2018.

When Theatre Arts is accredited, Utah State University will join a very small number
of institutions in which all arts programs are accredited by the appropriate association.

Further information, including handbooks containing accreditation standards, is available
at the following links:

In 2012, the Office of Research and Graduate Studies worked with departments to make
changes in graduate programs in response to a study conducted by a university-wide
task force. In 2015, the deans of the eight academic colleges were each charged to
review the department plans from 2012 and prepare a report assessing the progress
to date.